E-DRUG: Pharmacy Drivers (cont)
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Dear Tim and others,
I support the idea of providing an evidence base to this service
extension for two reasons. Firstly to test the hypothesis that this
group of people do in fact 'add value' and also to provide additional
data to the conention that pharmacists and their teams are required
between the prescriber and the patient.
Tim's discussion to me seems a bit like wanting the scientific proof
that white is white. There is loads of evidence, that there is a role
for pharmacists between the prescriber and the patient. You can easily
perform a Medline (or better Embase) search and come up with hundreds of
papers. This role has been described in some fundamental papers between,
amongst others, WHO and FIP.
The literature on the 'value of the pharmacist' is mainly based upon
their activities in the field of clinical pharmacy and pharmaceutical
care. These newer roles have been well documented by now, although (like
all practice research) the conditions for research cannot be as strictly
monitored as in a chemical or clinical experiment. The Cochrane library
also contains a review on this literature, and the conclusion is that there
is a proof of added value over the classical logistic role, but that the
research needs a more rigorous approach.
However, I am aware of the fact that the standards of pharmacy (as of
medicine) vary a great deal between countries. A large effort is needed to
bring the profession of pharmacy on a coherent high level of performance
all over the world.
Foppe
Foppe van Mil, Pharm D. Community pharmacist and researcher
Margrietlaan 1, NL 9471 CT Zuidlaren, The Netherlands
Tel: +31 50 4094333. Fax +31 50 4090732. Email: jwfvmil@wxs.nl
[MEDLINE, a non-commercial database is available on the Internet for free:
http://www4.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
but EMBASE, a commercial database, is unfortunately not yet on the
Internet. Subscription is expensive, but is worth for Drug Information
Centres as it covers many more drug-oriented journals than Medline.
Interested E-druggers can browse http://www.elsevier.com/homepage/
or email: embase-europe@elsevier.nl
Maybe they are willing to give discounts to developing countries?
WB]
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